Happy 20th anniversary to SPACED

Spaced, the greatest sitcom about science fiction and fantasy fans ("geeks," if you will), turns 20 years old today.

Created by Jessica Hynes, Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright, Spaced is set in London and sees the twenty-something Tim Beasley (Pegg) and Daisy Steiner (Hynes) as flatmates who pretend they're a couple to secure an astonishingly reasonable London flat from their ex-rock groupie landlady Marsha (Julia Deakin). The other regular characters include Tim and Daisy's pretentious artist neighbour Brian (Mark Heap), Daisy's fashion-obsessed friend Twist (Katy Carmichael) and Tim's best friend Brian (Nick Frost), a disgraced member of the Territorial Army who was kicked out after commandeering a tank and trying to invade Paris before being distracted by EuroDisney and subsequently apprehended on Space Mountain. Recurring characters include Tim's sworn nemesis Dwayne Benzie (Peter Serafinowicz) and his comic shop owner boss, Bilbo (Bill Bailey), who at a key moment is forced to fire Tim for hurling over-the-top abuse at a young customer for trying to buy Jar-Jar Binks merchandise (Tim's subsequent boss then fires Tim when he discovers his dislike of Babylon 5).

The show's storylines revolved around the characters' interpersonal relationships, such as Brian and Twist's growing romance, and also around pop culture references. This included episodes inspired by everything from Resident Evil 2 to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to The Matrix to John Woo. However, the series maintained a strong comedic edge, mining the laughs from the characters and situations they found themselves in so even non-geeks could enjoy the show (the cast used Julia Deakin as their litmus for this, as the only geek reference she got was a Close Encounters of the Third Kind mashed potato gag). This also helped the show age gracefully, even though a number of shows and movies the series referenced have since fallen into obscurity.

Spaced only aired two seasons in 1999 and 2001, totalling fourteen episodes, but of course its impact was seismic. Hynes, Serafinowicz, Wright, Pegg and Frost reteamed for the movie Shaun of the Dead in 2004 (which by coincidence celebrates the 15th anniversary of its US release today) and the latter three then went on to make Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World's End (2013). Pegg also played Scotty in JJ Abrams' Star Trek movies and most recently appeared in Amazon's The Boys, whilst Frost recently had a regular role on Into the Badlands. Serafinowicz recently starred in Amazon's The Tick and Hynes had a starring role on Years and Years. Wright has also had a successful directing career with the critically-acclaimed movies Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Baby Driver and the forthcoming Last Night in Soho. He has also worked as a writer on movies including The Adventures of Tintin and Ant-Man. The show also featured before-they-were-famous turns by British comics from David Walliams to Ricky Gervais.

Spaced remains the finest sitcom about pop culture, challenged only by Community (Dan Harmon had never seen Spaced, but after viewing it had to admit there must have been some kind of weird shared cultural osmosis). It never looked down or sneered at SFF fandom, instead promoting the idea of fans as creative and warm-hearted individuals. The show also still looks incredible, Wright's fast-cut editing and dynamic camera moves making it look like a film. Why more sitcoms (British or otherwise) have not taken their cue from this show remains a mystery.

So far, the creators are resisting the urge to create a new series (although acknowledging they have talked about it), instead preferring to leave these characters as we last saw them: happy, optimistic and ready for the future. If you haven't checked out Spaced, it's well worth catching up with now.

The Great Marvel Rewatch: Ant-Man

Scott Lang is a petty burglar who prides himself on his skills at infiltration and stealing. Hank Pym is a genius scientist who has spent decades perfecting the technology needed to miniaturise living beings. When Pym's former business associate unlocks the secrets of Pym's researching in an attempt to create devastating weapons, he calls in Lang to take up the mantle of the Ant-Man.

Ant-Man has a very interesting history. Back when British director Edgar Wright started making a name in Hollywood, after the success of Shaun of the Dead in 2004, he was tapped by Marvel to work for them on one of their properties. He chose the relatively obscure character of Ant-Man to build a movie around, perhaps figuring that his somewhat unorthodox filming style would get more leeway with a minor Marvel character than a big-hitter like the Hulk or Thor. When the Marvel Cinematic Universe took off, Wright's plan was put into motion and he and fellow Brit Joe Cornish were brought in to write the script, with Wright (whose cachet had increased in the meantime with Hot Fuzz and the multi-Marvel-actor-starring Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) to direct.

For whatever reason, Marvel got cold feet at the last minute and decided to switch the film to a safer pair of hands, the up-and-comer Peyton Reed (why they didn't suggest Cornish, who'd become a hit director in the meantime himself with Attack the Block, remains unclear). It was a controversial decision and one that remains so, as the decision was made so late that Reed actually ended up still using Wright and Cornish's script. The result is a movie that has many of the hallmarks of an Edgar Wright movie, such as fast-moving action, kinetic dialogue and a fusion of humour and emotion, but lacks Wright's fantastic skills in editing and camera movement.

Which isn't to say that Ant-Man is a bad movie at all. It's very solid, with a charming lead performance by the ever-reliable (and near-ageless) Paul Rudd as Scott Lang and effective support from Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, playing two different incarnations of Ant-Man. Evangeline Lilly also gives a great supporting performance as Hope van Dyne, Hank's semi-estranged daughter, although long-term Marvel fans may bristle at her more prominent Marvel character (aka the Wasp), one of the Avengers, being side-lined in favour of Ant-Man. Michael Pena also provides able comic back-up. The film moves really quickly and it eschews the Marvel tendency for insane scale by dialling things down to a more relatable level (the film's climactic battle takes place on a Thomas the Tank Engine toy railway track).

The problems stem from the meta-knowledge that Wright would have probably made a crazier and more interesting film, and the actual film issue that it's villain is really poor. Corey Stoll is a very solid actor, but he is much better as the tortured protagonist or supporting good guy. As a villain he doesn't work at all, and his character has absolutely no layers. He starts off as a petty, evil, money-grabbing imbecile and remains that way through the film. There's no sense of the good guy he was once was when Pym made him his sidekick, and this hurts the film's arc.

The secondary and tertiary cast also suffers from not having much to do. There's some absolutely fantastic actors here, like Judy Greer (Archer) and Wood Harris (The Wire) and they have such little material to work with they might as well be extras. I mean, why hire Avon Barksdale, even casting him against type as a cop, and then have him just standing around making surprised faces for every scene he's in?

Ant-Man (***½) is a solid, fun, breezy flick. It's enjoyable and passes the time, but it's also a little forgettable. It's certainly not the worst film in the Marvel staple, but it does verge on being the most disposable. Ultimately it is worthwhile, for Rudd's charming lead performance, some good laughs, the relatively low scale of the action and the set-up work it does for Ant-Man's later appearances.

Baby Driver

"Baby" is a young and talented driver. After inadvertently stealing a car belonging to master criminal "Doc", Baby finds himself employed as a getaway driver. His natural skill is enhanced by his listening to music (a way of dealing with tinnitus, a consequence of the childhood car accident that killed his parents). Having paid his debt to Doc, Baby is ready to start a life with his new girlfriend Debora...until Doc offers him one more job which will set him and Debora up for life.

Edgar Wright is one of the UK's most interesting directors, one of the (surprisingly) few modern directors who has a style and energy that is immediately recognisable. That style was immediately obvious in his first project with Simon Pegg, the superb TV show Spaced, and carried on through their three films together (the Three Colours Cornetto Trilogy: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End). But it went to 11 in his first Pegg-less movie, Scott Pilgrim versus the World, a hyperkinetic comic book movie which had a colossal amount of style, wit, charm and heart. Hell, it even permeated through his script for Ant-Man (even thought Wright was - ill-advisedly - removed from the movie as director shortly before production began).

Baby Driver is Wright's first movie as sole writer and director, and isn't based on any pre-existing property. It does draw, however, on his music video for "Blue Song" by Mint Royale (which gets a cameo appearance in the movie as a nod of thanks). It's a movie which combines its story with its soundtrack, with Baby (Ansel Elgort) using multiple iPods and different playlists to soundtrack his motoring adventures. Wright balletically choreographs the car chases so they run in time to the music and it's all breathlessly exciting.

It's also a little bit misleading: the low budget means this movie can't be The Fast and the Furious But Directed By a Brit and Actually Funny, at least not for any sustained length of time. Instead the movie diverts a lot of its run-time to exploring Baby's relationship with his foster father Joe (CJ Jones) and his new girlfriend Debora (Brit Lily James nailing - to these limey ears - a terrific Southern accent), soundtracking both storylines as well. There's also a great deal of tension between Baby and one of his fellow criminals, "Bats"(a menacing Jamie Foxx) as well as a reluctant friendship with "Buddy" (Jon Hamm), formed over their mutual love of Queen. Spacey shows up and gives a typically intense Spacey-esque performance, but there's some interesting twists in his character and he ends up going in a different (and less Spacey-esque) direction than you're expecting, which is welcome.

The film has a few issues, however. It can't quite sustain the vibe and energy the movie opens with, unlike Scott Pilgrim, and starts flagging in its second half. In particular, the female characters have relatively little to do (Eiza Gonzalez's female gang member doesn't get much to do, but does nail one of the best scenes in the film when she shoots down Foxx's character's macho posturing). James risks feeling wasted, especially after she learns about Baby's double life and rather than freaking out as expected actually steps up and starts playing a more prominent role in the story, only to fall back into a supporting role. The film also feels unsure in where it's taking Baby, with it being never entirely clear if he really wants to go straight or if he needs the buzz and energy of his driving. The gunfights in the conclusion feel a bit rote and the movie doesn't even have a concluding car chase, which is surprising.

Still, Baby Driver's first half is a masterclass of direction, editing and music: look out for a lengthy opening one-shot, a tip of the hat to Shaun of the Dead, which is subtle but impressive. Music lovers will also get a kick out of the huge number of music cameos in the film: Flea, Sky Ferreira, Big Boi, Killer Mike, Paul Williams and Jon Spencer are among those who make guest appearances. There's also quite a few good laughs (even if it's arguably Wright's least funny film, there's still a few laugh-out-loud moments) and some terrific performances.

Baby Driver (****) is on general release in the UK and USA now.

The World's End

Twenty years ago, five school friends set out to do the 'Golden Mile', a pub crawl taking in a dozen pubs in their home town of Newton Haven. They didn't quite make it. Now Gary King is determined to complete the crawl and rounds up his former mates. But once back in their home town, they discover that things aren't quite what they seem...

The World's End is the concluding film in the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, following on from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. These films have different characters but a recurring cast and are the creations of Simon Pegg (writer, lead actor) and Edgar Wright (writer, director), supported by Nick Frost (actor). Each film is based around a colour which represents the movie's genre and theme as well as being a flavour of Cornetto: red for Shaun (representing blood and the horror genre), blue for Fuzz (representing the police and the buddy cop/action genre) and now green for World's End. Finding out why the film uses the green colour is part of the fun.
 
The film is the first collaboration between Pegg and Wright in six years, with both having been busy in Hollywood in the meantime. Pegg has worked on the Mission Impossible and Star Trek franchises and written his own stand-alone SF flick, Paul (also co-starring Frost). Wright helmed the hyper-kinetic, gloriously entertaining Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and has been developing an Ant-Man movie at Marvel. The break has done them both good, with the result being a film that trades less on past glories (aside from the fence gag and the Cornetto motif, there are no returning jokes or sly shout-outs) and stands more on its own two feet. What it does take from its forebears, however, is structure and tone.

Like Hot Fuzz, The World's End centres on a tonal shift which transforms it from one type of film into another. In Hot Fuzz, this moment came about three-quarters of the way through the film when it transformed from a Wicker Man-style rural horror film into a Michael Bay blockbuster, but the film pulled it off through excellent foreshadowing. The World's End's corresponding moment comes in the toilets of the fourth pub, about a quarter of the way into the film, and is less successful: we've known the characters for a lot shorter period of time and the shift is not adequately foreshadowed. The move from surprisingly effective character drama to balls-out action flick is not as well-handled as in Hot Fuzz and the credulity-straining premise of the film is further eroded by the decision our heroes make to complete the pub crawl in the face of all logic. It's a bit like that bit in Shaun of the Dead when Pegg and Frost decide to hole up against the zombie hordes in the pub which doesn't entirely make sense, but you kind of go along with it because it's one thing and the result is uproariously hilarious (most notably, the pool cue accompaniment to Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now'). The World's End instead has to justify its premise eight times (each time they leave a pub and the situation has escalated further) and the results are only moderately amusing.

In fact, The World's End is at its best when the crazy SF stuff is forgotten and we're focusing on the character interrelationships. The five friends are convincingly portrayed. Particularly successful is the way that Gary's unhealthy obsession with the past and how it has increasingly dominated his thoughts the more his adult life has descended into failure, poverty and addiction is both bleak and exceptionally well-played by Pegg; this is Pegg's finest performance since Hot Fuzz and maybe his finest performance ever. It's certainly Frost's, as for once he plays the straight man to Pegg's more erratic lead and does so with a surprising level of maturity. Sadly, this strong performance tails off towards the end of the film when Frost's character falls off the wagon and he reverts to a more familiar 'funny fat guy' routine. Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan and an excellent Paddy Considine all provide able support as the other members of the childhood gang. More wasted is Rosamund Pike as the nominal love interest, who gets very little to do.

The SF stuff is rather more unbelievable, with little effort to integrate it into the reality of the film (as with the zombies in Shaun of the Dead). In fact, the SF stuff rapidly becomes a bit of a chore and a distraction from the real story, which is what's going on with Gary. Even the characters seem to feel this way, with a five-minute fight scene with the 'bad guys' ending and the cast immediately returning to interrogating Gary about what's going on in his head. Oddly, this is an SF film where the SF stuff is an unwelcome deviation from the more mundane, character-based drama and relationships. This is The World's End's biggest failure, as both Shaun and Hot Fuzz used their outlandish events to reinforce the drama and characters, whilst in The World's End they merely distract.

That said, what The World's End does have is a really great ending. It doesn't wimp out and the ending integrates the two sides of the film together more successfully than anything up to that point. Indeed, of the three films in the trilogy The World's End is the only one that feels like it could have a really good sequel.

The World's End (***½) is the weakest film in the trilogy, although even in failure it still provides some great laughs and some interesting characters. It is a lot better than Paul, for certain, and seems to prove that Simon Pegg is at his best in collaboration with Edgar Wright. Hopefully it won't be so long before they next team up. The film is on general release now in the UK and next month in the USA.

WORLD'S END release date brought forwards

The movie The World's End has had its release date brought forwards by a full month. The film will now be released on 19 July in the UK this year (the US release date of 23 August remains - so far- unchanged).

The World's End is the third and concluding film in Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's thematic Three Flavours of Cornetto trilogy, following on from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (Paul, though also starring Pegg and Nick Frost, was created by a different team), as well as their TV show Spaced. As well as starring Pegg and Frost and being directed by Wright, some other actors from the earlier projects are reappearing: Paddy Considine (one of the Andys from Hot Fuzz), David Bradley (the incomprehensible farmer from Hot Fuzz) and Mark Heap (tortured artist Brian from Spaced) will also have roles in the new film. Apart from Pegg and Frost, the only actors to appear in all three films are Martin Freeman, though he will have a larger role than his two brief appearances in the prior movies, and Rafe Spall (who also appeared in Spaced).

The film's premise is that a bunch of friends go out on the town in London to recreate an epic pub crawl from their youth, only to get caught up in the disaster to end all disasters.

The World's End has done a straight swap with Kick-Ass 2, which is now being released on 23 August in the UK (and 16 August in the USA).

THE WORLD'S END starts filming

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright have reunited to start filming the third movie in their Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy. The first two movies in this very loosely-connected trilogy were Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, both of which were international hits. Martin 'Bilbo Baggins' is the third actor to appear in all three movies, whilst Paddy Considine also returns after appearing in Hot Fuzz. Rosamund Pike and Eddie Marsan round off the list of announced actors. A new poster for the movie has also been released:

The movie will be released on 14 August 2013 in the UK and 25 October 2013 in the USA.

Trivia: World's End is an area of Chelsea, London named after a pub (the same pub that will feature in the film prominently). The first episode of the 1964 Doctor Who serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth was also named after this area.

Comic-Con posters: THE HOBBIT and THE WORLD'S END

A whole ton of interesting stuff is happening at the San Diego Comic-Con, as usual. A lot of upcoming movies have had exclusive teaser posters released for them, and these are two of the most interesting:

An Unexpected Journey is the first of two movies adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit to the big screen. The same crew are handling the project as the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy a decade ago, including director Peter Jackson. The first movie will be released this December. Principal filming on the two movies ended a week ago, with the production switching to editing and special effects work.

The World's End won't start shooting until September and is planned for release later in 2013. This is the third in the thematic Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, following on from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and reunites director Edgar Wright with actors Simon Pegg (who also co-writes) and Nick Frost (Paul, despite featuring Pegg and Frost, doesn't count because it was directed by someone else).

The World's End is set during an unspecified disaster that threatens the entire world. Rather that played out from a traditional large-scale, global perspective, the threat is instead glimpsed through a group of characters (including Pegg and Frost) as they recreate a pub-crawl around London from a decade earlier, culminating at the World's End pub in Camden. Expect laughs and ice cream.

The trilogy is so-called because each movie features the characters eating a Cornetto ice cream whose colour is related to the movie: blood red (strawberry) for zombie horror flick Shaun of the Dead; police blue (original flavour) for crime caper Hot Fuzz; and alien green (mint) for The World's End. The title is also a riff on Krzysztof Kieslowski's excellent Three Colours series.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

22-year-old Canadian slacker Scott Pilgrim faces ridicule from his friends and bandmates when he hooks up with 17-year-old high-schooler Knives Chau. However, his life becomes infinitely more complicated when he dumps Chau for enigmatically cool American girl Ramona Flowers. Flowers' seven 'evil exes' have decided that Scott must defeat them all in order to date Ramona. Scott is forced into seven battles of escalating difficulty as he tries to win Ramona's heart and make amends for his rough treatment of Chau.


Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is an interesting film. It's a full-scale, all-out assault on the viewer's sensibilities, with radical shifts of tone and pace as the film moves from what appears to be a grounded comedy with some geeky overtones to a flat-out fantastical cartoon-made-flesh, with characters levitating through the air and unleashing 'demon hipster chicks' in battle, before shifting back to an intense relationship drama for five minutes before side-shifting into a bloodless Tarantino movie. In many ways cool, but it makes for an at times uneven film.

The movie is directed by Edgar Wright, who previously helmed the flicks Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and the TV series Spaced. This film marks his first major work without the partnership of Simon Pegg (who was writing and filming Paul at the same time; Pegg and Wright will apparently be soon reconvening for a third film). The film also marks Wright's first work with an American-sized movie budget: Scott Pilgrim cost ten times as much as Hot Fuzz and twenty times as much as Shaun of the Dead to make and every cent of it can be seen on screen. The visuals in the movie are kinetic, explosive and rich (multiple viewings may be required to take everything in), though never too confusing. The fight scenes are pretty good, and the choreography makes you believe that Michael Cera could kick some backside, which is an impressive achievement. As an action movie - the American Kung Fu Hustle is a comparison I've seen made - it works very well.

As a relationship drama/comedy it's more varied. It's not helped that central character Scott Pilgrim is rather unlikable. I know that's the point of both comic and film, but he doesn't really improve and become more likable over the course of the film, at least not until the last few seconds of the movie. Michael Cera is also pretty much just Michael Cera in the film, only really springing to life during the battles (particularly the bass battle, when he brings the required attitude) and the rest of the time doing his whiny indie actor spiel, which risks becoming tiresome. In a film full of villains exploding into coins, music-summoned CGI dragons and people reincarnating after using an 'extra life', the most fantastical thing is that any of these women would find Pilgrim even remotely attractive.

Luckily, the rest of the cast is almost flawlessly excellent. Kieran Culkin is superb as Pilgrim's 'cool gay flatmate' who acts as his moral compass, whilst Anna Pill is suitably demented as drummer Kim (whose band introductions are among the funnier things in the film). Ellen Wong and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are both great as Scott's love interests Knives Chau and Ramona Flowers. Winstead hits the note that Cera fails to by successfully portraying a sympathetic character despite her many bad decisions and judgment calls.

The film also has a few nice ironic cameo appearances. Brandon Routh (the ex-Superman) and Chris Evans (Captain America/the Human Torch) play two of Ramona's evil exes, a rival bassist with psi-powers gained through veganism and a skateboarder-turned-action-movie-star. Both actors take the mickey out of their tough guy roles with excellent comic timing, not to mention Wright reusing the Spaced approach of getting characters to do things they don't want to by using the magic phrase, "There's girls watching".

Once you get past the great performances (a variable lead aside) and startling visuals, the movie is effectively a metaphor for characters having to confront the demons of their past and not let bad history restrict the potential for happiness in the future. Or something along those lines. It's also a crazy action flick with tons of excellent geek references which will appeal to those who know what Scott Pilgrim is talking about when he references the bassline to the theme tune for Final Fantasy II (which I believe is actually Final Fantasy V, but given a different number due to...sorry, getting off-topic there) and where the beautiful 'L word' is 'lesbian'.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (****) goes on a little too long and towards the end becomes repetitive (I think it might have worked better with five evil exes), and Wright's visual brilliance becomes a little over-manic when not restrained by a stronger writing partner like Simon Pegg, but overall this is a fun and frantic movie with strong performances and an offbeat sense of humour. The movie is available now on DVD (UK, USA) and Blu-Ray (UK, USA).

Wertzone Classics: Spaced

Spaced was a UK sitcom that ran for two seasons in 1999 and 2001 and was tremendously critically acclaimed at the time. The creative team subsequently moved into cinema, creating the hit movies Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and the forthcoming The World Ends, but Spaced remains by far their funniest and most rewarding work.


The series opens with aspiring comic book artist Tim Bisley (Simon Pegg) and workshy writer Daisy Steiner (Jessica Stephenson) both having to find a new place to live. Randomly bumping into one another in the local cafe, they decide to fake being a couple to rent a surprisingly cheap flat in London. The rest of the regular cast is rounded off by their landlady Marsha (a wine-swigging, ex-groupie single mum), Tim's best friend Mike (a failed soldier with a weapons fixation), Daisy's best friend Twist (who Tim sums up as being a "bit like Cordelia from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and latterly its spin-off series Angel, which is set in LA,") and Brian, the mildly pretentious artist (specialities: anger, pain, fear and aggression) who rents Marsh's basement flat.

It's a pretty traditional sitcom set-up, but Spaced differs from the average sitcom in two important respects. First, it is directed, shot and edited much more like a movie, with fast-cuts, segues, occasionally impressive special effects and the use of real locations (a nightclub sequence is actually filmed in a proper nightclub, for example, rather than a lame set). Secondly, the series is absolutely overflowing with movie, TV and comic references, some verbal, others visual, some subtle and some pretty outrageous. The DVDs come equipped with a 'homage-o-metre' which tracks these references as they fly past. The homage-o-metre almost explodes during Season 2 when Robot Wars, Fight Club ("No-one talks about Robot Club!") and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are all heavily referenced in just one episode.

What makes Spaced special is the way these elements are combined with some excellent writing and acting, particularly from Pegg and Stephenson as the leads and the brilliant Mark Heap as Brian (who went on from Spaced to win acclaim in a number of other Channel 4 comedy shows, most notably Green Wing). The comedic situations are also hilarious, such as Tim getting loaded on cheap speed and playing Resident Evil 2 for 12 hours straight, leading to him visualising the world as if a zombie apocalypse is taking place (this was the inspiration for Shaun of the Dead), or the gang's attempts to gatecrash their teenage neighbours' party turning into a Close Encounters of the Third Kind homage. There's also plenty of cameos from other comedians, with Little Britain's David Walliams playing transsexual artist Vulva and The Office's Ricky Gervais putting in a cameo as a slimy newspaper worker, whilst the irrepressible Bill Bailey steals every scene he's in as Tim's comic shop boss Bilbo Bagshot (who retains mild guilt about once punching his dad in the face for saying Hawk the Slayer was rubbish, instead of suggesting they watch Krull and compare the two).

The two seasons are linked by ongoing story arcs, although these are fairly low-key. Daisy and Tim having to fake being in a relationship to appease Marsha is a point revisited several times (leading to awkwardness when both end up in other relationships), whilst Mike is battling to be readmitted to the Territorial Army, having been thrown out after trying to invade Paris with a Chieftain tank. The second season is linked together by Daisy's employment problems, Brian and Twist's romance and Tim's utter hatred and loathing of The Phantom Menace, which lands him in hot water on several occasions (and gives rise to the legendary primal scream of, "BUT JAR-JAR BINKS MAKES THE EWOKS LOOK LIKE FU**ING SHAFT!").

Spaced (*****) lasted for just 14 episodes almost a decade ago, but remains one of the funniest, most entertaining sitcoms ever committed to screen. Even now rewatching certain episodes reveals more previously-missed homages to movies or comics, and the series seems to just get better with age. The complete series is available on DVD in both the UK and the USA. The US DVD edition is even more impressive, as it features guest-commentaries from the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith and Matt Stone.